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Phil Coke Is a Go-To Guy in Yankees’ Depleted Bullpen

The Yankees arrived in Cleveland on Thursday with fewer problems than they have had all season.

Their fearsome lineup is welcoming back Jorge Posada. Their deep rotation has a starter to spare in Chien-Ming Wang. Their walking reality series, Alex Rodriguez, has been delightfully bland: sound defense, clutch hitting, no drama.

But there is one fissure in the foundation of the Yankees, who stand a half-game behind Boston in the American League East. It is the bullpen, where two projected setup men, Brian Bruney and Damaso Marte, are out indefinitely with arm injuries. According to General Manager Brian Cashman, the market for trades is slow.

Only two setup men have been on the active roster all season: the erratic right-hander Jose Veras and a left-hander who was toiling in Class AA a year ago, so far from the radar that Manager Joe Girardi had never seen him pitch.

He is Phil Coke, who is tied with Veras for the staff lead in appearances, with 21. It is no wonder Coke was chatting before Wednesday’s game with a Texas Rangers reliever, Eddie Guardado, whose nickname is Everyday. Despite Coke’s mixed results — 1-2 with a 4.43 earned run average — Girardi has found him indispensable.

“He has three quality pitches,” Girardi said. “He’s able to locate his fastball on both sides of the plate, he has an equalizer in his changeup to get right-handers, and he’s got a good slider to get left-handers. Really, what he does is he just pitches. He locates, he changes speeds and he works both sides of the plate.”

It sounds so easy, but not much has been that way for Coke, 26. When he was in first grade, Coke was taken by helicopter to San Francisco for emergency treatment of a kidney disorder. It has stayed mostly under control since then, except for during his senior year at Sonora (Calif.) High School, when he had to miss part of the wrestling season.

“I wasn’t a super wrestling genius or anything like that,” Coke said, smiling. “I was just a big, dumb ox who liked to throw people. Land on ’em, pin ’em and it was over. But wrestling was just to pass the time for baseball season to come.”

Drafted by the Florida Marlins in the 49th round, Coke passed to attend San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, Calif. Guardado was an alumnus who worked out there, and he talked with Coke about advancing in baseball, stressing the need to run 15 sprints when 10 were required. After one year, the Yankees took Coke in the 26th round.

Even with Guardado’s advice, Coke’s conditioning was an issue. He sometimes wrestled at 171 pounds in high school, but by 2007 he weighed 245. At 6 feet 1 inch, his thick frame drew the Yankees’ notice, and not in a good way.

“They put me into the pay-attention-to-this-guy list,” said Coke, who dropped to 228 and must have been happy to be recognized at all. For five seasons, he never escaped Class A. Elbow problems held him back in 2004 and 2007, and Coke admitted to trying too hard and putting pressure on himself.

Photo

Yankees reliever Phil Coke is 1-2 with a 4.43 earned run average this season. His 21 appearances are tied for the team lead.Credit
Barton Silverman/The New York Times

“I was stuck on stupid,” he said, until his father, Doug, implored him to relax before last season. Coke remembered advice he had heard from his agent’s friend, the former pitcher Charlie Hough: try easy. When he stopped worrying about a stalled career, Coke started to take off.

He shone at Class AA Trenton last summer, with a 2.51 earned run average, and every scout Cashman dispatched came back with the same report.

“First it was Stump Merrill,” Cashman said. “Then Gordon Blakeley. Then Stick Michael. All of a sudden, it was like anybody who went in there came out with a real positive report on Phil.”

Coke could touch 94 miles an hour with his fastball, and his other pitches were improving. The Pittsburgh Pirates noticed, too, and asked for Coke during trade talks for Marte and outfielder Xavier Nady last July 25.

That night in Trenton, Coke struck out the side in the first inning against the Portland Sea Dogs. He returned to the dugout and the pitching coach, Scott Aldred, told him he was done for the night.

“I asked if he was crazy,” Coke said. “I was like, ‘Did you not just see that? What do you mean I’m done? No I’m not.’ He said, ‘No, you are,’ and he took off for the bullpen. I was like, ‘Are you guys kidding me? What, did you trade me?’ ”

The answer was unclear. The Yankees had agreed to send Coke to Pittsburgh, but the Pirates wanted further medical information. The Yankees were eager to push the deal through, and after a sleepless night, Coke learned from a club official that the Pirates had agreed to a different package. He was staying in Trenton, but not for long.

Switched to the bullpen, Coke threw harder and was quickly promoted to Class AAA. He was in the majors by September, allowing just one run in 14 2/3 innings. He made the opening-day roster and continues to learn his new role.

On the first Sunday of the season, in Kansas City, Coke watched from the bullpen as Joba Chamberlain set down the Royals with ease. Mentally, Coke said, he checked out of the game and was startled when told to warm up. He promptly allowed a crushing double to Brayan Pena and took his first loss.

“I went out there and laid a freaking heater up in the zone for him,” Coke said. “He hit a double, a run scored and it was a merry-go-round after that. I was extremely mad at myself, because I knew that I was called on in a big situation and I blew it.”

In his next 10 appearances, Coke allowed no runs. He has struggled a bit lately, dropping his arm angle and losing the tilt on his slider, with one loss, one save and one blown save in May. The bullpen is a work in progress, and so is he. But now he has internalized the first rule of relieving.

“Anything can happen,” Coke said, with words that could be the motto of his unlikely career.

A version of this article appears in print on , on page B10 of the New York edition with the headline: Coke Is Constant in Yankees’ Depleted Bullpen. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe